Bye-Bye Cable

The cable guy (neither Larry nor Jim Carrey) is supposed to disconnect our cable service today, leaving us with just Internet service, which will cut our bill from $103 a month down to $40. 

We're getting rid of cable primarily because we don't spend enough time watching television to justify the expense.  Kat watches an hour or so a day of cable cartoons or shows such as How It's Made or Mythbusters;  Shane and I don't even bother to turn the TV on most nights. 

Case in point:  I saw a banner hanging up in town recently, congratulating a local man on his success in a show called X Factor.  I had to do a Google search to find out what X Factor is, and find out why our town is fussing over a man named Tate Stevens.  Apparently, this alumnus of our local high school and employee on our city's road crew is doing quite well on X Factor.  But I was surprised to learn it was a talent show.  I thought it was about eating bugs or sleeping in scorpion infested coffins or something like that.  Oh, that's Fear Factor?  Fear Factor...X Factor...what's the difference?  It's all the same to me.

That's just one show.  I've never watched an episode of American Idol or Desperate Housewives.  I know those aren't new shows, but I can't even tell you what the new shows are called.  Anything we do know about and want to watch, we can find either online or via Netflix.

See what I mean?  It just isn't worth $63 a month we've been paying to NOT watch TV.  Seriously, we should've ditched it months or years ago, but of course, we were under contract until this week.

What about you?  Do you have an expense for a service you really don't need anymore?  It could be anything, not just cable.  Maybe it's something small, like a subscription to a magazine you don't read, or something bigger, like a gym membership you never use.  Could you cancel it to save some money each month?  Or redirect the money toward something you need or would enjoy more?  It's might be worth your while to consider it.

Self-Control and the Struggle to Stay Productive

What's your Internet Achilles' heal?  For some it's Pinterest.  For others, it's on-line games.  For someone else, it might be eBay.

I don't have a problem clicking away from any of those, but I can't seem to stay away from Facebook.  It can suck the hours right out of my day.  I don't know why I have such a weakness for it.  While I do "get something out of it", especially on my Haphazard Homestead page, I don't think what I get out of it is commensurate with the time I can find myself putting into it.

Worse is that I can't seem to leave it alone on my own.  I'm not normally one who has trouble exercising willpower, but staying away from Facebook is harder for me than cutting back on sugar was last month, or giving up cigarettes cold turkey was ten years ago.  I did give FB up cold turkey a couple of years ago (really, that long ago?) and did fine, but I don't want to give it up entirely now; I think it's a usefully tool for bloggers.

What I have found that works for me is LeechBlock.  LeechBlock is a free Mozilla Add-On for those who use the Firefox browser.  I can choose what sites to block and either block them entirely, for specified periods of time each day, or specified amounts of time within a time period (for example, I can block a site for 45 minutes out of each hour), or I can set up one-time blocking as needed.  There are also tracking tools to show you what sites you spend the most time viewing and other nifty tools.

I've tried a few different scenarios.  Blocking Facebook from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. was a little too stringent, but allowing myself 10 minutes each of those hours was still too lax.  I'm currently allowing myself a half-hour in the early morning, an hour at lunchtime and a half-hour in the afternoon, plus unlimited time in the late evening and on weekends.  That gives me several large blocks of time during the day to get other things done without the Facebook distraction.

I'm sure there are other similar tools on-line for folks who don't use Firefox.  I did a very quick search of "website blocker" and came up with a few.  LeechBlock is free, and others may be as well, but I have seen some that charge a fee for the service.

I think these tools work psychologically as much as they do practically.  In addition to my laptop, we have two other computers in the house that are not blocked.  I could easily hop onto one of them to see FB while mine blocks it, but I don't.   I could also get on Internet Explorer and access it that way, but I won't do that, either.  I guess I just need a small reminder to turn away and stay on-task with other things.

I don't block any other sites at this time, but if one becomes a time-suck for me, I will add it to my list.

What about you?  Do you have a lack of will-power when it comes to certain websites, or the internet in general?  What tools do you use to make your day more productive?


Disclaimer:  I was not compensated in any way for this post.  This is simply a tool that works for me and I thought I'd share it with my readers.

Making Music

While Shane was working out of town for so many months last year, he decided to take up the guitar to combat the boredom of sitting in the motel room in evenings. 

We had picked up a cheap youth guitar at a garage sale last spring when Kat said she might want to learn.  She quickly found that the fantasy was better than reality, so Shane started out by taking that youth guitar with him.  Soon, though, he wanted one more his size, so he bought a good used one Eleca from a pawn shop in the town where he was working.  It's not a big name brand, but it sounds and looks nice.

6-string Eleca on the left.

While scouting for online lessons, some of which are on YouTube videos, he ran across something called a Diddley Bow (aka, primal slide guitar).  Of course, he had to make one, just to see if he could. He messed around with that for a little while, but was soon back at the "real" guitar.

That's when he found his nice little Martin Backpacker guitar at a really good price on craigslist.  Isn't it cute?  We actually have it hanging on the wall in our bedroom and it looks surprisingly attractive there.

Martin Backpacker.

 More recently, Shane and I both read the book Made By Hand: My Adventures in the World of Do-It-Yourself by Mark Frauenfelder.  One of the things he mentioned among his attempts to garden, keep chickens and bees, and supercharge his espresso maker was that he made a banjo from a piece of wood, some guitar strings and a tin can.  Of course, Shane had to try it, and actually ended up making two.  (By the way, we both recommend this book.)

That was Saturday, and on Sunday we visited my dad, who is a junker/reseller of the highest order.  He picked up this 1970s Ensenada 12-string guitar, sans the strings, for $3 at a garage sale.  It was priced at $5, but of course, he had to bargain a little for a better price.  My dad spent another $25 getting it strung and tuned at a music shop and had plans to sell it when he realized it has a physical flaw that could keep him from getting very much for it.  But it's still playable and sounds good, so he is letting Shane borrow it for as long as he wants it.

Old Ensenada 12-string.

Thus the story of Shane's instrument collection.  And now the good (or bad) news, depending on how you look at it.  I thought our camera only recorded video, but I learned it records audio, too.  It just doesn't have audio playback capability; I have to play the videos on the computer to hear them.  Why would I consider that bad news?  Because I usually can't be bothered to watch embedded videos and maybe you can't, either. 

If you do (want to be bothered, that is), just watch these.

Things I Want To Accomplish This Year

Oh, I know we're already a few days into the new year, but it's not too late for me to set a couple of goals for 2012. 

These aren't resolutions, per say.  They are just a couple of mini goals I've set for myself.

The first is a reading goal.  Last year, I set a goal to read 52 book, or one a week.  I reached my goal, and in fact, I read 55 books, but it was tough.  I lost a lot of ground during gardening season and had to really push at the end of the year to meet the goal.

I love reading, but this year, I'm scaling back to a much more reasonable 26 books, or one every two weeks. I fully expect I'll read more than that, but I don't want to feel like I HAVE TO.  If you are interested, you can follow my progress by watching the Goodreads widget in my sidebar.  If you click in, you should be able to see the titles of the books I've read.

My other goal is that I will do more crafting in 2012.  I enjoy crocheting, knitting, cross-stitch and sewing (among other crafts), but I have a hang-up.  If I have chores left to be done, I won't allow myself to sit down and craft.  That's all going to change this year.  I plan to finish some projects I've already started and also start (and finish) some new projects, to the tune of at least a project a month. I'm going to make sure I have some fun craft time this year, whether I like it or not!

This is where that accountability comes in.  The first projects I plan to finish are:

1) Cut and hem 4 pair of light- and draft-blocking drapes.  The drapes are long enough that they cover our furnace registers if I don't pull them back.  Pulling them back defeats their draft blocking properties.  This is NOT what I consider a fun craft project but it needs to be done.

2) This multi-colored crocheted afghan I began for my daughter and son-in-law more than two years ago.  Crocheting is usually fun for me, but all the color changes in this project have got me down.  It's time to be done with this one.

3) Cut out and sew some skirts and pants for Kat.  I bought the patterns and fabric a couple of months ago, so I need to get going on these.

I've also decided that if I simply can't or won't finish something, well, I'm going to get rid of it one way or another.  Who needs the guilt of an unfinished project hanging over their head?  I don't.

Anyone else want to join me in wrapping things up this year?